July 2022 Debtfree Issue
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QUESTIONABLE COLLECTION CALLS ABOUT OLD DEBTS<br />
WHAT THE<br />
LAW SAYS<br />
In South Africa, like many other<br />
countries, there are laws about<br />
credit providers trying to collect<br />
many years later.<br />
The Prescription Act and refinements in<br />
understanding from court cases and other<br />
legislation stops credit providers from<br />
forgetting about a debt and then many years<br />
later coming back to demand payments.<br />
In general* if you have not been contacted by<br />
a credit provider about a debt for 3 years and<br />
have not paid money towards that debt for 3<br />
years and have not been taken to court over<br />
this older debt then the debt has prescribed<br />
(or died).<br />
It then becomes illegal for credit providers to<br />
collect such debt.<br />
*and we are being pretty general here as there are specific laws all about<br />
this sort of thing. Another good thing to know is that paying something<br />
towards a debt that has already prescribed does not mean that the debt is<br />
somehow active again and that you have to carry on paying. Once it dies,<br />
it is dead.
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